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Home › News and Events › 2015 › Researches › Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, CiRA and Hitachi Start Joint Research on Development of Key Evaluation Technologies: Evaluation for Industrialization in the Field of Regenerative Medicine

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July 24, 2015

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, CiRA and Hitachi Start Joint Research on Development of Key Evaluation Technologies: Evaluation for Industrialization in the Field of Regenerative Medicine

Sumitomo Dainippon
Pharma Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka, Japan; President: Masayo Tada) ("Sumitomo
Dainippon Pharma"), Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto
University (Kyoto; Director: Professor Shinya Yamanaka) ("CiRA") and Hitachi
Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Representative Executive Officer and
President & COO: Toshiaki Higashihara) ("Hitachi") jointly announced today
that they are starting a collaborative research program within the framework of
the "Project Focused on Developing Key Evaluation Technology: Evaluation for
Industrialization in the Field of Regenerative Medicine," a
government-sponsored program for which grant was awarded to the organizations
by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and The Japan Agency for Medical
Research and Development for fiscal year 2015.

CiRA and Sumitomo
Dainippon Pharma have been engaged in a joint research with a view to
developing a clinical treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease by the use
of human iPS cells. Hitachi, meanwhile, has promoted development of an
automatic cell culturing technology. The three organizations have now agreed to
work together to develop the base technology and the evaluation methods for
establishing a production process of dopaminergic neural progenitor cells with
a view toward clinical application of human iPS cell-based regenerative
medicine technology for patients with Parkinson's disease. The objective of the
joint program is to establish a production method which would enable efficient
mass-production and stable supply of safe and consistent quality cells.

Shizu Takeda, Chief
Scientist, Center for Exploratory Research, Research & Development Group

The three organizations
will seek to apply the outcomes of the collaborative work to establishing the
world's first Parkinson's disease treatment by the use of iPS cells.

* Cell
sorting: A method for obtaining only objective cells

(Reference
information)

About the production technology for iPS
cell-derived dopaminergic neural progenitor cells

In one of its
production process steps for dopaminergic neural progenitor cells, Sumitomo
Dainippon Pharma employs a proprietary cell purification technology discovered
by KAN Research Institute, Inc. and owned by Eisai Co., Ltd.

About Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma

Sumitomo Dainippon
Pharma focuses its research and development on psychiatry & neurology and
oncology areas, where high unmet medical needs exist in order to channel its
energies into innovative drug discovery. By the same token, Sumitomo Dainippon
Pharma seeks to apply leading-edge science such as iPS cells to drug discovery
and strengthen activities in regenerative medicine and cell therapy to develop
medicines for refractory diseases. For more information, visit the official
website: http://www.ds-pharma.com/

About Hitachi

Hitachi is focusing
more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power &
infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems,
construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive
systems, healthcare and others. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal
2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen. In the field of
regenerative medicine, Hitachi is active in cell processing center and is
developing automatic culturing technologies. For more information, visit the official
website: http://www.hitachi.com.